'Monk' Recap: 'Monk Is One Strange Duck'

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Even after eight seasons, the theme song of "Monk" is still so fitting and amusing. It is a jungle out there, and poor Monk is all alone. Last week's episode was rather cute, with Monk meeting a whole new group of people he has no ability to connect with. That's okay though, because they can't really connect to anyone.

Monk and Natalie took the weekend off to visit some of her friends, and apparently he was too uncomfortable to speak to any of them. Their car breaks down and they're stuck in the desert for a little while. Monk sees a UFO that night, and as expected, it freaks him out. His logical mind points out how completely impossible that is, but he also trusts his eyes and what he observes. He insults the car mechanic when he tries to talk about a ghost he saw once, thus securing that they are stranded in the little town longer. Natalie and Stottlemeyer joke around that maybe Monk is an alien ... and both pause to consider the possibilities.

He stops by the sheriff's office to report the UFO, although he refuses to call it that no matter what, and a local woman Dolly is convinced her neighbor Marge is missing. The sheriff reassures her that nothing is wrong. I wonder if this will come back later? You better believe it! That night when they arrive back at the hotel, Monk, Natalie, and the hotel doorman all see the UFO together.

The next morning starts about ten minutes of pure hilarity when Monk gets up and goes to his window, only to find a person dressed as an alien staring at him. He then calmly goes back to bed and tries to 'wake up' again, but this time there are three aliens in his window. Ha. It's the little details that make this show still clever after eight seasons. The town is crawling with alien fans and conspiracy geeks that want to find out about the UFO. They all go to the landing site with Monk, and then decide that he is an alien himself. Because he hates germs and won't show his belly button. To be fair, not just conspiracy geeks might believe this ... Monk is one strange duck.

With all the people in the area, they do stumble upon a dead body and it is the woman mentioned earlier in the episode. Monk is a little disturbed to see that she is wearing completely brand new clothing, and they call her only remaining family member, her brother Kyle. He gets really angry when the sci-fi people start messing with his van, and Monk observes that he used to own a hobby shop of sorts.

Monk, Natalie, and the sheriff go to the landing site and they get stranded by an unseen shooter who takes out the tires of their car. They are now in the desert with no one to help them, and Monk is sent to get help since the sheriff is shot in the leg. He finds strange items in the middle of the desert and then collapses. He wakes up to find that the UFO fans saved him, and he knows how it happened. The brother killed his sister to inherit the new money she came into, but the coyotes dragged her body where no one could find her. He used a hobby model UFO to fake the sighting so people would swarm the area and find the body for him. Too bad the world's greatest detective was just passing through, eh Kyle?

In the end Monk tries to calmly (and kindly) explain to the conspiracy nuts that there was no UFO, but as expected they completely refuse to believe him. After all, he's one of THEM. He plays along with them, which is kind of sweet for Monk, and overall this was an amusing episode. It's nice to see Monk out of his element here and there.

Let it be known USA plans to have a web series titled "Little Monk" to show his exploits as a child. I expect it'll be like Encyclopedia Brown, only with the OCD detective elements too. It looks adorable. Check on the official website for more about it.